A FURIOUS Birmingham grandmother took her protest about refuse collection straight to the city council by dumping her rubbish on its doorstep.

A FURIOUS grandmother took her protest about refuse collection straight to the city council by dumping her rubbish on its doorstep.

Lesley Wallace, aged 61, of Yew Tree Avenue, Yardley, gathered up a bag full of rubbish which had been left in her street after a refuse collection and brought it by bus to the council offices in Victoria Square.

She then emptied it onto the doorstep and refused to move until she was allowed to talk to someone in charge.

Mrs Wallace claimed: "This is happening all over the city. They come and pick up the rubbish but any bits that fall out or fall through rips in bags are just left behind.

"If everyone from all the streets where this is happening brought their rubbish here it would fill the square."

She said she was prompted to act after repeatedly calling the council to ask workers to come back and pick up rubbish left behind.

"I was absolutely furious. I came outside in the morning to get my paper and I looked out into the street and saw this," she said.

"I've phoned the council about it before but they said they could only pick up rubbish which is in black bags. It's ridiculous.

"I've lost count of the amount of times that I've called the council about this and I never get anywhere so I thought I would be a bit pro-active and come down here."

Mrs Wallace, a retired chef, said: "If you left this kind of mess outside a restaurant, the environmental health would be around to close you down, but we're expected to live with it. It's disgusting."

She left council workers to clean up after her protest from 10am to noon yesterday.

A council spokeswoman said: "We apologise for any inconvenience that has been caused.

"A senior manager is going to get in touch with her. We will be investigating these claims thoroughly and speaking to local refuse crews.

"We will also monitor the situation over the next few weeks. The local refuse depot has no record of previous complaints."